EUROPE: The Euro

Manuel Rodríguez Navarro of the European Central Bank spoke calmly about the Euro, and thus provoked Christopher Jones to exclaim, allegedly "speaking for the victims. My vehemence against this paper "funny money" is due to the fraud that was perpetrated on the peoples of Europe by the leaders of the Union. The EU has no common financial policy or taxation and so the Euro-Teuro will ultimately fail, like every currency union before it. Is there any historical precedence for a currency existing without a government? You know the answer -- no.

We are already seeing the results of this fraud: Germany needs very, very low interest rates because it is in recession, while Spain needs higher rates because its inflation has doubled (officially, yes, doubled) to an "admitted" 4 %. These are sovereign states -- how long will Germany tolerate massive unemployment (4.3 million plus 2.5 million on government sponsored, pencil sharpening jobs -- the ABM) to control massive increases in prices in Spain. It just isn't possible -- and so, the authorities have returned to their favorite economic cure: lies.

But they couldn't lie their way out of the messy remains of the Stability pact: Germany, Italy, France want the stability pact on government debt loosened (currently set at 3%, it was reported that German debt has climbed to over 3.7%) and Spain wants the criteria loosened for inflation because prices are running wild, south of the border. Berlusconi, sly fox that he is, will return Italy to a double till system, which in my view could be a prelude to withdrawing Italy from the Euro altogether.

Its introduction has resulted in a massive cover up: prices have doubled -- a cup of coffee with milk went from 3,50DM to 3,50 Euro for example -- and the princes in government continue to say that there is no inflation -- some even have the audacity to say that inflation has dropped !! (Maybe there s no inflation for the caviar and champagne crowd at the ECB) As usual the little man in the street has to carry the bucket.

As for phoney Euros -- there was a ZDF TV program that had the entire nasty business on camera. I even had one in my hand last week! If Sr Rodríguez Navarro doesn't know what is being reported in the press, the time has come to invest in gold coins and bury food in the garden".

Christopher sent a footnote: "The current German government is nevertheless trying to reduce the deficit by raising taxes. Allot of the 100% increases were due to an increase in the various taxes which have have not been changed since the Nazi era. My cat was astonished to find a huge increase in catfood prices and we discovered the "cut flowers tax" had been increased to cut the deficit and meet stability pact criteria. Kaffeesteuer was increased, well the sad list goes on and on with no end in sight. Allons enfants de la patrie".

RH: This seems like a circular argument to me. Christopher condemns the activities of the EU government, and then says the euro will not work because there is no European government. From this distance I see problems for the euro, but no catastrophe such as Christopher foresees. I do not know how to interpret his quoting the bloodthirsty "Marseillaise", Apparently there are enemies of the euro on the left as well as the right. My belief is that the euro will survive and that there is no need to bury food. The reference to "the caviar and Champagne crowd at the ECB" sounds like the wild charges made by those who sang the "Marseillaise". Back to the remark attributed to Marie-Antoinette, Of course, what happens in Iraq could change everything.

Hank Levin comments on the American indifference to the whole euro subject; "You may wish to remind your readers that WAISers are indeed a very selective group in terms of their interests. My experience in both New York and California is that there is a high level of ignorance of both the EU and of the Euro. There even seems to be a lack of interest in the subject by an otherwise, highly, urbane group of people who know more about the intellectual debates in Europe than the debates over the EU policies. Certainly, there is more general interest in Europe in what is happening to the dollar than there is in the U.S. in what is happening to the Euro" RH: Americans are naturally worried about the state of the US economy and therefore of the dollar. But there is the bigger issue that American interest in foreign affairs is really limited to crisis situations such as Iraq.

Ronald Hilton - 1/26/03